


sometimes it starts like this

by marveling_under_an_open_sky



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Kid Fic, Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, Various Members of the Black Family, smol beans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-09 09:04:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18913822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marveling_under_an_open_sky/pseuds/marveling_under_an_open_sky
Summary: Rebellions don't always start with a bang. For Andromeda, it's much less than that.





	sometimes it starts like this

**Author's Note:**

> This has been kicking around on my phone for literally years, haha. Polished it up and posted.

Andromeda is six years old, playing tag with her cousins and sisters in Grimmauld Place. She runs from Sirius, so eager to get away that her chubby legs carry her far from the piercing gaze of Aunt Walburga. And Walburga is so intent on scolding Regulus, who’s dropped a worm down the back of Narcissa’s dress, that she does not see her young niece scurry off. 

Andromeda realizes there are no more footsteps behind her, but when she turns to see if Sirius is still chasing her, her shoe catches on a clump of wiry grass and sends her tumbling to the ground. She scrapes her knee painfully on the cement, and when Andromeda sees the blood welling in the torn skin, she begins to cry. 

A shadow falls over her, and she looks up, hoping to see Mother. But it's an Muggle man. He’s as old as Grandfather, but he looks much less grumpy. His face is creased in an expression like Mother’s when she watches Andromeda hold a teacup, only different. Softer. “Are you all right?” he asks.

Andromeda scoots backward a little and stared up at him with wide eyes. She's been told that Muggles are filthy creatures, not even close to Mother or Father or even her. She's never seen one this close, but he looks normal. Very normal. 

“My leg hurts,” she whimpers. The man takes her small hands and lifts her gently to her feet. His hands feel normal too, warm and big, but rough too. They’re comfortable hands. 

“I'm sorry." He helps her brush off her skirt. "Where's your mama?” he says.

“Mother is - over there,” Andromeda says, pointing in the general direction, though her family is hidden by a turn in the road. She wonders if she should call him sir, like Mother always tells her. It’s a word for those tall, frightening men that come to the house so often; this man doesn't act like one of those. But hasn’t Mother also said that Muggles were barely people? And this old man seems more like a person than Uncle Cygnus anyway. 

“Do you want me to take you back to Mother?” he asks, and Andromeda feels scared all of a sudden, of what Mother would say if a Muggle came back with her. 

Andromeda shakes her head. “No. Thank you for helping me.” She grabs her skirt and curtsies, just how Bella taught her. She doesn't think Mother would like it if she curtsied to a Muggle, but she does it anyway. Mother won’t know. And if she has to curtsy to every other person who came to the house, who were often so much meaner than him, why couldn't she curtsy to this man? 

She treads more carefully on the way back to her cousins. She turns around, once, to wave at him, and he waves back. His smile is much better than Grandfather’s. “Where'd you go?” Sirius asks as she appears. 

Andromeda would like to tell him about the man, but Bella is running over, and Andromeda knows her big sister won’t like it. “I'll tell you later,” Andromeda whispers to Sirius. 

“Meda! What happened to your knees?” Bella asks loudly. 

“I fell,” Andromeda says, clasping her hands behind her back and hoping Bella won’t ask for details. “Where's Mother?” 

“I'll take you. She'll fix it.” Bella grabs Andromeda’s arm and hauls her across the street, back to the house. 

••••

At the dinner table, Andromeda once again hears “Muggles are filth.” She wants to talk about the nice man she met today, but she knows she will get scolded. And she doesn't want them to know that she liked him more than Grandfather, anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't usually write in this style, but since these are tiny kiddos, I figured it kind of fit. Hope you enjoyed ~


End file.
